My little man and me

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Found this in my drafts so slightly out of date whack but here it is never the less!!!

We had a jam packed family weekend as my brother and nephew were over from Perth for a football game and we caught up with them at my nephew’s game as well as breakfast the next morning. The little man was so excited to see both of them he kept calling out to both during the game which was very sweet.

cousins

breakfast with Buzz as well

When we returned home from breakfast I decided there was no TV on and he was not happy about this so I suggested making a cubby over the dining table. He said no but I still went and got a sheet from the linen press and took it out to him. He decided it was going to be over the couches instead and I had to make sure there were two doors and a window! He isn’t demanding at all is he???

So I swished the sheet over the couches, placed his little table and chairs under there and he went and got some toys to entertain himself. Best hour and a half of my life as he was so engrossed I got to read the paper and some of my book uninterrupted!!! Yay for me!!

cubby

checking out his goodies

some of said goodies

I will be storing this idea away in the old memory bank and pulling it out again as the little man thought it was great!

OMG! My heart was in my throat on Sunday before my body could react to what had just occurred. Thankfully my dad was not as slow to react as me and all was fine.

The little man said he wanted to see nanna and grandpa on Sunday morning when he woke up so I rang to see if they were going to be home and that we would be popping out if that was ok. All good so we got ourselves ready into the car and off on the 50 minute drive to their house.

When we arrived he just wanted to play with the toys that are there and nothing else. So we posed the question of feeding the ducks at Ringwood Lake. He thought this would be fun and off we went.

Arriving at the Lake we had to park in an area that had been fertilised recently and the little man kept saying “why can I smell animal poo?” “Animal poo stinks and it is yucky!” Once we cleared the smelly area all was good and we could see the ducks on the lake.

We had three pieces of bread to feed the ducks and out on the deck we ventured. To begin with he was throwing the tiniest pieces of bread to the ducks that they couldn’t even see the motion or the ripple in the water. I showed him what size to break off and watch them come to us. He loved it and we had mentioned not to get too close to the edge as no fence and to be careful.

After getting a bit zealous with his throwing of his bread the unthinkable happened, well in hindsight probably not that unthinkable, he did a big throw and followed the bread in the water.

I’m standing there thinking I have bags in my hands and do I strip off to jump in after him blah blah blah going through my head. Whilst I’m thinking this my dad is on his tummy reaching in the water to grab my little man and pull him up. I am still thinking am I going to have to get in there because I’m not a great swimmer and it’s going to be bloody freezing!!!! How deep is it as well due to being out on the deck???

Dad got him and pulled him out of the water, not a mean feat mind you as he had on boots and a thick pullover due to having a cold and asthma so this added to his normal weight of around 22kgs. He was so good and more in shock than anything else and freezing of course!! He didn’t panic and he didn’t thrash about, mind you it literally happened in the blink of an eye. He kept saying “I fell into the dirty duck water.” All I wanted to do was cuddle the heck out of him but he was soaking wet.

As we walked back to the car he kept saying that he had fallen into the dirty duck water and then added that they had hit him on his head with their feet! I think it might have been his Grandpa trying to get a grip of him.

As the day wore on the story of his fall got bigger and bigger, which was very cute.

Can’t tell you how grateful I am to my dad and that my little man was ok and didn’t seem to have any side effects from his impromptu swim on the dirty duck water.

I finally got to go and see Monet at the NGV in Melbourne the other Friday night with a girlfriend. We had been talking about it since it first opened and I think we attended the week before it closed!! Nothing like cutting it fine…..

It was a light rainy night in this great city of ours and the queue was longer than I had expected, luckily I had pre booked tickets on line so we were able to ‘jump’ the queue. We decided to have a glass of champers before seeing the exhibition so that we could have a quick catch up and relax before wondering around.

We finally entered the exhibition and we were surprised at the number of paintings there that we had never seen before and how when Monet liked an image he certainly grabbed hold of it and painted a number of paintings on that image. Lily pads were definitely a favourite of his! Mind you they were all slightly different and amazing!! He painted some portraits of his family as well which were interesting as I never knew he had done this.

When he had eye issues his whole style changed from pastels to dark reds/oranges and the brush strokes changed of a light dab feel to strong harsh strokes on the canvas. Ver interesting to see how much his eye sight affected what he saw and how he painted, upon getting glasses that corrected the vision (as much as they could) he was back to painting his pastels and delicate brush strokes.

It was annoying that we couldn’t take photos in the exhibition but totally understandable at the same time.

Instead you have to see some images of Melbourne that I took on the night after we had a bite to eat.

Lovely exhibition and if it is coming to a town near you definitely go and see it.

The other night on the news we saw a segment on model trains and the little man was very excited and screaming at the TV. I decided to look it up and see where it was on and the times. It was not too far from home and started at 10 the next day.

I rang my parents to see if they would be interested in coming as well as my aunt and uncle, who is the biggest train nut I have ever met, wanted to come as well. Resounding yeses all around so our date for the following morning was organised.

We all arrived at the same time and walked into the exhibition. Well I have never seen such an excited little man in my life. He was jumping up and down with a massive smile on his face and talking a mile a minute about trains and everything he could see whilst still jumping up and down. Another boy was just as excited and the two of them together was priceless to see such unadulterated pleasure on their faces.

There were a number of models set up and we walked around every one of them and had a good look with as much excitement as when we first walked in. My little man was in heaven. I never realised he was such a ‘train’ boy as he has had a train table in his room for ages and hardly plays on it at all. He went through a phase of “Thomas the Tank” but never completely obsessed about it, so to see him like I did I was taken aback to the sheer joy he was in.

I have been off the air waves recently as life seems to have gotten the better of me.

First off I can’t get the little man into a kinder for next year and it is compulsory in Australia for all 4 year olds to attend or they can’t start school!!! They system in my local council is ridiculous and very frustrating to say the least. He is in a day care that is running a kinder program but the ages are 3-5 year olds so not sure how successful this will be or how he will cope with it I do not know….

I seem to have nominated the two most popular kinder’s in my area without knowing and have gone through three rounds of offers and received nada, nil, nothing, ZILCH!!! I am more annoyed for the little man as he won’t have the continuity and think it is appalling that a kinder has more 3 year old spots than it does 4 year old and therefore kids miss out. Is it just me that finds this part the most absurd???

I want to whinge and whine to the council and the kinder but it will probably only black ball me and my son so is there any point? I want to fight for all the other parents that may be subjected to the same treatment in the future but do I have the energy and strength to do so??

Why is it so difficult to get your child into kinder when they have attended 3 year old and are meant to be at an advantage for having done so?

To add to the above issue I have been summoned to go to mediation with the little man’s dad and really can’t be bothered. Not the right attitude I know but he is in such a great routine and space why rock the boat? His dad has had so much time with him from such a young age and I think he forgets that he is only 3 (nearly 4) and what you are currently receiving is fantastic as most fathers don’t get what he has until this age bracket.

The other reason I can’t be bothered is I know he is going to ask for more time and I don’t really believe he wants it he just doesn’t want to pay child support. He currently gets an additional 8 Thursdays a year to spend time with our son but has he ever taken them all?? NO! The first year he took 3, last year he took 4 and so far this year only 2. If you want more time with your son why aren’t you utilising what the courts have recommended??

He has broken the court orders twice by keeping him overnight when he was not meant to and various other things that fall outside the court orders. I know he doesn’t have the money to go to court so going to say at mediation for nothing to change so we will end back up in court! I can’t afford it either but prefer to have a legally binding court document, not that he cares, with regards to the best interests of my little man.

Well that is my life at the moment if it isn’t one thing it is another and sometimes I wonder what I did in a previous life to have to live through what I am now. I don’t think I have ever done anything bad to have deserved this karma that seems to be playing in my life, except maybe going out with my ex!!!

When will this bubble burst and I will be left with a beautiful open colourful life with my boy??

There seems to be a lot of posts around lately about names and naming babies. Thought I would get in on the act and say it is great to have an unusual name but you also have to take into consideration the spelling of it and how many times a day you think your child may or may not have to spell it or repeat it said number of times before the other party can repeat it successfully.

This has been my lot in life for a long time and in the end I become quite frustrated when you have to repeat it a number of times and people still look at you weirdly or just can’t get their tongue around it! I have friends that to this day, still mispronounce my name but I can’t be bothered correcting them as it is too tiresome. I have decided that I will answer to anything and it is easier than trying to get the correct pronunciation.

I don’t believe my name is hard to say, but obviously it is, and I say it the way my parents have so we could all be wrong!! Anyway my name is Nyree which in my opinion is easy to say than the Maori way of spelling it Ngaire.

My dad realised one day when I was ‘working’ whilst at their house and on the phone and had to repeat my name four times to the person. When I hung up dad said “do you do that every day?” To which I replied “yes on a daily basis!!” He apologised and he said he had no idea it would be that bad for me when they decided on the name.

So people think things through before you pick out names for children!!

I love my name and that is it not common but it does have its drawbacks as well.

This is what I have just found on the web and yes my parents got the name from the NZ actress
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Nyree meaning and name origin

Nyree \n(y)-ree\ as a girl’s name (also used as boy’s name Nyree), is pronounced ny-REE. It is of Maori origin. From Ngaire. Nyree was also the second name given to what is now called Armenia. It dates back to before Christ. The name Nyree has been used in the Armenianrace for both men and women. Made familiar in the 1960s–1970s by New Zealandactress Nyree Dawn Porter.